I Think We're Doing Pretty Well, Given...

I feel for this kid. And for his parents. I'm just going to go ahead and say it. Kai is a really, really fussy baby. We're getting much better at calming him down, and I think we're finally realizing that we're not doing anything wrong, not missing some big THING that is troubling him. We suspect that he is 1) very easily overstimulated; 2) very sensitive to the digestive issues that his immature, eight-week old gut have; 3) very sensitive to the reflux that all babies naturally have (their esophaguses tend to just open up willy nilly - some babies mind, others don't); and 4) needs a lot of help napping during the day because of these issues. This morning, I got him napping in record time. As soon as he started to fuss, on went the vacuum. He stopped screaming pretty much immediately and was asleep in seconds. Left it on while I put him in my Moby wrap (so that I could turn the vacuum off and he would actually keep sleeping). He's been out for 47 minutes so far - I'm aiming for this to be a one and a half to two hour nap for him. I'm headed out for a walk in a few minutes.

So far, with the exception of a few nights, we have been incredibly lucky with respect to his nocturnal patters. Last night, for instance, he slept from 7-8, then had his last big meal of the day, passed out by around 9:30pm, slept until 1 something am, and then slept until 4 or 5 something am (now that his latch is better and I can feed him in the dark and in our room, I'm not even really that aware of what time it is when he wakes during the night). I can't figure out what makes night so much easier for him - perhaps it's that whole overstimulation thing during the day.

This morning I'm feeling confident that this phase will eventually pass - I always know it will---

---This was when Kai interrupted me by waking up and wanting to eat. And chat for maybe five minutes. Then scream for a while. Then to discover that he actually can scream even when the vacuum cleaner runs. Luckily, it was about fifty degrees out this morning, and hadn't started raining yet, so, with the vacuum at least keeping him mellow enough that I could succesfully put him back in the Moby (like sleep - he always calms down once he's back in the carrier for a few minutes, but he sometimes resists going in...but then, when he's in that state, he pretty much resists everything except arching his back and screaming) and walk around the block. Back to sleep.

I'm trying to decide whether to go to my mom's group this afternoon. On the pro side of the list, I usually learn at least one helpful tidbit. On the con side, I'm feeling relatively unstressed by my son today, but I'm not sure how I'll do today with a meltdown outside the house where I don't have all my different tools (like the vacuum).

Again, a shoutout to the message boards at Ovusoft.com. How I do love the women who post there. So many people whose babies fussed the same way Kai does and who can tell me that it passed at 12 weeks, or four months, or whenever, and can serve as wonderful reminders that I'm doing my job as a parent by being there with him when he's upset and doing my best to find the source, but that this may also just be his temperament right now. (By the way - I'm generally a good speller, but I just discovered that temperament is spelled temperament, not temperment).